Shoot shafting question

[ricktrojanowski]

What are some of your favorite types of shoot shafting?  I am messing with some Vibunum and Dogwood, but I am looking to see what else makes good shafting so I can keep my eyes open for other options.   

[Pat B]

I've used maple but it comes out bigger in diameter than same weight dogwood or viburnum. You may also have hazel nut also. I'm not sure if privet grows that far north but it makes good shafts and also wild rose.

[ricktrojanowski]

We have lots of privet around here.  I think I will give it a try.

[Pat B]

Be sure privet are well cured before you remove the bark or they will check, at least in my experience.
  Privet is very hard wood when cured. It will make a tough shaft.  In most wild stands I've seen, you should have no problem finding plenty of privet shoots for arrows.  Pat

[Hillbilly]

My favorites as far as hardwood shoots go are sourwood, arrow wood viburnum, hazelnut, and buffalo nut. There are a lot more that make good or decent shafts, though. Some that I have tried that worked: Chinese privet, multiflora rose, silky dogwood, red osier dogwood, swamp rose, autumn olive, winterberry holly, red maple, black cherry, meadowsweet spiraea, white ash, hickory, euonymus, persimmon, beautyberry, buttonbush, black locust, to name a few. There are a lot more out there. I've done a good bit of experimenting with different shoots-I've probably tried fifty different species and have more cut that are waiting experimentation. I enjoy trying the different shoots to see how they compare, but I still haven't found anything better than the first four I mentioned (except for cane-cane is the ultimate shaft material). Here's a set of a dozen shafts I made last year from a dozen different species of shoots-not easy getting them any where near matched:



[attachment deleted by admin]

[Pat B]

Steve, that is a very impressive dozen arrow shafts. I remember you posting them last year. Says not only a lot about the materials used but also the maker.     

[sailordad]

when you say hazel nut,do you mean like the bush that the nuts grow on?
if so then they should grow in ny,they are all over here in mn. its just hard to find one that long enough before it splits off,you usually find them with a crook in them that makes them kinda "j" shaped and then to many branches coming out

[Hillbilly]

Thanks, Pat. Tim, yeah, the American hazelnut is the best one. You can find big clumps of it sometimes with a lot of straight shoots. There's also a beaked hazelnut that's a lot smaller plant. It makes good shafts, too but it's hard to find shoots big and long enough on it.

[ricktrojanowski]

Hillbillly Thanks for the input.  Looks like I should just do some experemienting on what I can find around here.  I went on the USDA site and it shows that sourwood is out here in eastern LI.  Now it is just finding it.

[George Tsoukalas]

Hillbilly, those are purely awesome shafts. Jawge

[Hillbilly]

Thanks, Jawge.